where have my manners gone?

I love when select individuals here talk about me in from of my face like I don't understand most of what they are saying. Usually they are mocking me or repeating something that I've said in the past. Sometimes they even say my name or use nassara when they talk about me. I guess it's not much different than me talking about people in english in front of their faces. I need to stop doing that. The other day I was at the pool with some other volunteers and these people (who I assumed were Burkinabe bc they were speaking french) were learning how to swim. Their instructor was teaching them this weird jelly roll stroke that literally involved a lot of paddling and no progress. This woman was flailing around for a good 30 seconds and moved about 2 inches forward. Of course I found this hilarious so me and another volunteer started cracking jokes to one another. I don't know if they heard us but about 15 minutes later they come up to us and start speaking to us in english. They were from Nigeria. Oopsie. I need to stop that now before I go back to the states talking about people right in front of their faces thinking that they don't understand me. Sheesh I'm going to come back a strange woman.

It's officially hot season and next is rainy season but rainy season came a bit early. The only difference between the two seasons in that it rains. It is still hot as anything! In Ouaga the other day it was 123 degrees F sheesh!

it rained at my site!!!

lovely scorpion that I found in my house one morning

 I started my first mini project with a neighboring village. I started a tree nursery at the primary school! We only planted 60 seeds but its just my first time. I wanted to make sure that I did it correctly before I do more.

kids that helped me plant the trees + Ousman and Amidou

me and my counterpart Ousman

my measly 60 tree pods

I also sent the official invitations to the 8 students that I'm taking to camp g2low in August. My french and moore are getting better. I finally got a tutor. He is a teacher so he will be gone during summer break. Hopefully during the fall we and start our lessons again.

So I've started planning the 2012 Burkina Faso bike tour. The tour is hosted by the Gender and Development committee (a PC committee that I happen to be on). Basically the BF volunteers bike around the country and put on awareness building activities. I will post a blog on this event but just be ready to donate money to this amazing volunteer run fundraiser tour. The money goes to volunteer grants to do things like girl/boy camps, mural paintings, tree planting, income generating activities, the list goes on. Stay tuned for that =]

here is a link to the bike tour blog that they used last year. We will update it shortly.
Sur nos vélos, pour le Faso!


SHOUT OUTS:

Thank you Tiana and Sandra for the amazing care package ( I ate/used everything in like a day lol)
Thank you Aunt Leigh, Amber, and Jenai for the letters (I sent the responses out last week)
Thank you Lize for surprising me (again) with yet another package.
Thank you Mother for being on constant call whenever I need your advice/attention (I know these calls ain't cheap)